The Trials of Sulfur
by Orza
Summary: Sulfur has anticipated these trials her entire life, although, she's also anxiously feared them. These unknown tasks may be mentally and physically requiring, however, she didn't know in what manner. It doesn't help that an old personal dilemma has arrived to interfere with possibly the most challenging and important step in her life.


"Sulfie, please tell me you're ready?"

The resulting sound was a violent clatter, metal against stone. The black talons had lost grip on the metal handle and allowed the container to drop, spilling a fine quantity of water across the tiled floor.

A pair of amber eyes followed the stream of liquid as it traveled down the slanted stone into a small drain along the wall, bringing both the reflective aqua and remnants of dirt along with it.

Sulfur sighed and angled her talon enough to take hold of the sideways handle, fallen upon the ground nearby. As she closed her talons around the metal loop, she raised her arm and tossed it into the corner of the room.

Sulfur cringed a bit as the second loud clatter rang throughout the room, she then moved to clutch the Brown Bear pelt, hung on a small rack nearby, in order to dry herself. She revealed her still white teeth and hesitated before pronouncing a drawn out, "Yes…?"

The dragon outside stamped their talon on the floor, or at least that's what it sounded like. "Mother's getting angry." There was a sour disdain in the voice, though also a gentle squeak and haphazard tone.

Her older sister was always afraid of Mother, "Not me, though…" she thought with pride, "sort of." The truth was Pyralis scared everyone to some standard. If the golden horn engravings weren't enough to frighten one off, then the artificially serrated talons sure were.

"And I'll be earning mine today… hopefully." Sulfur didn't really know what to expect in the ceremony, though she assumed they couldn't really hurt her. "I am a princess after all!"

"Will you stop talking to yourself Sulfie!?" a voice rang from outside.

She sighed, looked at herself in the mirror and prepared to walk through the door and into the cave beyond it. Though something stopped her, looking at herself, at her bruised crimson scales. She stared at the deep gouges under her eyes, not inflicted by an attack rather restless crying and several late nights alone.

She had this hollow scorn build up whenever she looked at herself, persistent in making her infuriated, endless in its rage-inducing attacks. The string of emotion was clever, though, just cowardly enough as to flee whenever held inferior within the war for her mind, however, it was also intelligent enough to strike her when she was feeling down. It often plunged her into a storm of solemn emotion for great lengths at a time. Though other times she could stand and enjoy life, like today… she hoped.

Sulfur looked down to the ground and grabbed hold of the doors handle, yanking it open with spite powered force. The hinges and wood moved to reveal a slightly larger body sitting in a corner of the room.

Her sister was grasping a scroll in her talons, vigorously scanning the pages, as she often was. Reading had always been her best technique to properly avoid Mother's disdain, if there was one thing Pyralis could get behind, it was having an intelligent daughter.

Pyralis made her sister follow her around, much to her displeasure, however, it often helped clear Pyralis' mind of anger so she did anyways. The queen seemed to view her daughters more as possessions rather than actual heirs. If she received a compliment on one of them, she would puff up in pride… though the feeling of elation wasn't directed towards them, rather herself.

Sulfur had tried a similar technique once, however her mother usually called it out. She figured it hadn't helped when she accidentally picked up the scroll upside down when pretending she to be reading as Pyralis stepped into her living quarters.

"Sulfie… what's wrong?" Her sister stood and rushed to hold Sulfur in her talons. She even wrapped her right wing around her sister and leaned her head into Sulfur's shoulder.

"Nothing…" she sighed, "and stop calling me that."

"We're sisters, I think you can deal with my low-quality humor."

"Well how would you feel if I started calling you Phosphie?" she snarled sarcastically.

Her sister pulled her snout from Sulfur's shoulder and smiled revealing her gold endowed fangs, "Both endeared and mildly annoyed. Now, what's wrong?"

Sulfur paused and smiled lightly before dropping her grin because of the last part, "Really it's nothing."

"Sister, while this may come as a shock, I mildly enjoy your company and would generally prefer you to be happy. Now, what's wrong?" She backed off and was sat a few feet away, a concerned expression across her features.

"…They're back." Sulfur confessed with a shaky and grim sigh, though it was still in some way invigorating to tell of her strife.

"Back?" her sister questioned, "So soon…" She got up and walked around in a circle with a furrowed look. After a few moments of this, she seemed to collect her thoughts once more and sat down within a few feet of her sister and looked at her in the eye. "I'm so sorry."

"It wasn't you." she hissed and then covered her mouth quickly. Her mood shifted quickly, and she was particularly prone to becoming uncharacteristically spiteful or angry whenever someone made a guess about how she felt.

"Sorry, and thank you Phosphorous…" Sulfur sighed with a mourning expression, saddened by her attitude and even more so by the topic of discussion. This time it was her who initiated the tight hung…

"Sulfie… we'll figure this out." As Phosphorous stated this she began to move her head away from Sulfur's and took a talon to brush some of the still remaining dirt from under her sister's eye. "Though now, we need to focus on the priority issue…"

Her statement was followed by a head gesture, pointing towards another doorway, leading to a place Sulfur had feared and anticipated her entire life.

Sulfur disengaged their embrace and stepped over to gaze upon the signature Skywing-covered carvings, composing the external edges of the doorframe. They depicted stories or brave queens. Perhaps one day she would be carved somewhere on here… " _Though, on second thought, I don't really think to be Queen of the Holy Door Frame would be of much pleasure._

Before stepping through the newly named, holy door frame, Sulfur paused to ask a question of the ceremony she had long since needed to know. "Phosphorous, I have a question?"

"Yes, Sulfie?"

"This… this ceremony does… does it hurt at all?" she stuttered nervously, unsure whether it made her un-princess worthy or something like that.

Immediately the humor seemed to drain from her sister's eyes. The deep orange faded from her cheeks and her claws began to unconsciously flex and relax as they often did when she was nervous.

There was one thing Sulfur was sure of now, thanks to her sister's silent assistance. _This was going to hurt… this is going to hurt a lot._

 **Author's Note:  
** So, I wrote this in a hurry... no real plot or details considered beforehand, however, I thought I'd upload it anyways. Tell me if you would like for me to continue... and please, as usual, leave any comments of any kind whether nice or critical.


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